Abernethy Lands at Verily to Lead RWE Effort

Former FDA principal deputy commissioner Amy Abernethy has joined Alphabet’s Verily as president of its clinical research business. The company says Abernethy will lead its “planned expansion into a full-scale clinical evidence generation platform supporting a broad range of clinical trials and real-world evidence (RWE) studies.”

Abernethy recently left FDA (see earlier story) after a two-year stint where she focused on the agency’s core technology operations to modernize its technology and data practices. She has been credited with advancing FDA’s work in RWE and personalized medicine.

Abernethy joined the agency in 2019 after serving as Flatiron Health chief medical officer. Previously, she served as a professor at Duke University School of Medicine and directed the Center for Learning Health Care in the Duke Clinical Research Institute.